Chapter 99: Reports from the Harbor District

Luo Feng grumbled a few times behind me before finally returning to his room.

When I woke up the next day, Luo Feng’s subordinates in the Hong Kong district had sent over a large number of faxes. The media in Beijing had not caused much of a stir—it was strictly controlled—but the Hong Kong district had been whipped into a frenzy, a state that continued to this day. Reports in Hong Kong regarding the actress "Z" and her practice of "raising a Kuman Thong" had not ceased; instead, they were intensifying.

After filtering through the documents, I found several more reports I had been looking for.

I must admit, the paparazzi in Hong Kong have a formidable ability to dig up dirt. Fueled by the information leaked by Wang Yazhuo, almost everything regarding Actress Z was unearthed. Rumors about her past bed-hopping and bed photos were confirmed; it was said that her former boyfriends had been harassed to the point of desperation by the paparazzi.

Those boyfriends included famous singers and actors, as well as wealthy business moguls, all of whom were quite handsome. Luo Feng teased that Z must have been terrified by the scandal, otherwise, given her personality, she would never have rejected Zhou Sheng when he approached her.

When we met Zhou Sheng, he looked as disheveled as a vagrant, yet looking at his photos, he was undeniably handsome and from a wealthy family. Luo Feng’s teasing made me frown, but I said nothing. It was reported that after falling into the scandal, Z had even tried to seek out those former boyfriends. Some media outlets claimed she knew she had no hope of a comeback and wanted to find someone to marry so she could retire from the entertainment industry.

However, those former lovers who had once shared a bed with her all chose to distance themselves from her. Other reports suggested that it was only then that Z truly felt despair, leading to depression and anorexia, until she became skin and bones.

"She brought this on herself," Luo Feng remarked with a mocking smile after reading the reports.

Z’s father passed away when she was very young, and she had grown up living only with her mother. After she reached a dead end, she had sought out her mother, and for a period, Charlie and her mother had stayed by her side. Yet, neither her mother nor Charlie could successfully counsel her.

Later, the media captured images of Charlie and a skeletal Z visiting various Taoist temples and shrines to pray. However, after Z made her comeback, she no longer lived with her mother. Some troublemaking media outlets accused her of being an unfilial daughter. There were even claims that Z had not seen her mother in two years. Furthermore, many outlets reported that since her resurgence, Z had not interacted with her former friends in the industry.

These were the negative reports about Z, but there were also those who spoke in her defense. Some claimed that Z truly knew she was wrong, citing her sincere apology upon returning to the screen and the lack of any subsequent scandals. These supporters argued that the rumors of Z raising a Kuman Thong were merely baseless fabrications spread by malicious people.

These defenders praised her, claiming that her so-called friends were not true friends for abandoning her during her downfall, and it was only natural that she would not associate with them after her comeback.

Perhaps running out of things to say, these defenders even dug up an interesting detail: Z was indeed very famous in Hong Kong, and many media outlets dubbed her an "all-around artist," but in reality, she was better at acting than singing. After her comeback, she never released another record, claiming she would only act and refused to follow company demands to release low-quality photos to swindle fans, stating it was a matter of responsibility. This stance, in fact, won her the favor of many fans.

The media was divided on this; some said it was just a common trick used by her manager, Charlie. Charlie’s competence was unquestionable; although the entertainment industry is full of highs and lows, without him, Z could never have risen from the bottom to a new peak within two years.

There were many more reports about Z, but the most bizarre ones concerned how she had transformed from a skeletal figure back to a glamorous star within just a few months.

I read these reports very carefully. Luo Feng, initially uninterested, began to grow impatient.

"Why are you looking at all this?" he asked.

I replied, "Do you remember what I told you? Any object or event can become the key to solving a case."

Luo Feng nodded. "At the crime scene of the 'Ghost Food Delivery' case, you said that hair dryer turned out to be the key to solving it."

However, Luo Feng still couldn't understand why I was reading these reports, reminding me that much of the Hong Kong media was full of nonsense. I didn't deny this, but I couldn't deny the capabilities of those paparazzi and reporters, either.

As I spoke with Luo Feng, another sheet of paper emerged from the fax machine. Luo Feng picked it up and tossed it to me, saying it was more reporting on Z and Charlie visiting temples—he joked that they were even traveling abroad to pray.

I was stunned and immediately began reading.

The timeline was still from two years ago. The report lacked photos, but someone claimed to have seen Charlie and Actress Z at the Hong Kong airport during the winter. I immediately picked up the last black-and-white photo captured before Z regained her glamorous appearance; the date on the photo aligned perfectly with the time mentioned in the report.

I hypothesized that the reporter who wrote this piece hadn't managed to photograph Charlie and Z, but they had been spotted by other journalists during their travels.

The reporter stated that Z’s destination was a country in Southeast Asia, a place where the worship of Kuman Thong was rampant and where the legend originated. The Hong Kong airport had been in use for decades and had only been rebuilt and renamed recently; Z and Charlie had gone to the international airport before its renaming.

I stared at the report for a long time. When Luo Feng asked me what I was looking at, I asked him if he didn't find it strange.

Luo Feng didn't grasp it. Setting my suspicions aside, I called Chen Fan. Chen Fan, upon receiving my call, thought I had discovered a new lead. I asked him for a favor; he hesitated, saying it would be difficult, but promised to try his best.

"Remember, if you want the credit, try not to let anyone else know," I told him.

Chen Fan sounded even more troubled. "My authority might not be enough to handle this."

I scoffed, "Do you think getting a promotion is that easy?"

Chen Fan finally gave a sheepish laugh and hung up. Worried he wouldn't be able to pull it off, I had Luo Feng use his own connections to help as well, which he did immediately.

Luo Feng was completely bewildered by my maneuvers and asked me what I was trying to do. After I explained my hypothesis and plan, he was shocked and asked if I was certain. I shook my head, "I'm not entirely sure, but I have to try."

No sooner had I finished speaking than my mobile phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number. As soon as I answered, a desperate voice came through the receiver—it was Z.

She told me that Charlie had been in an accident.

After clarifying the situation, I left immediately and soon arrived at the hospital. While I was on my way, Chen Fan called me, also saying that Charlie had been in an accident. The location was the underground garage of Z’s new residence. Chen Fan said he was rushing there, noting that the incident had reportedly occurred over an hour ago.

Z said Charlie had been taken to the hospital. When I arrived, Charlie was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious, his head bandaged, while Z sat to the side, crying. I asked Z what had happened, and she told me that Tang Jia and the others had just left the hospital.

Z explained that about an hour ago, she received a call from the police. Escorted by her bodyguards, she had tremblingly gone down to the underground garage. By that time, Charlie had already been taken to the hospital. The police told Z that the "Kuman Thong case" had struck again.

Charlie’s injury was to the back of his head, just like the previous two cases, and a Kuman Thong doll had been discovered at the crime scene.